Hong Kong Disney

The Hong Kong Disneyland was a lot of fun! We went with the Cryer family, one of the families we traveled with. The park was a mini version of the Magic Kingdom. Glad we went! It was nice to have a day of fresh air and relaxation before getting on the very long flight for home! We stayed about 8 or 9 hours, and as you can see, the babies were all worn out!

Ellie and Katie both did a great job on the flight. Sleeping is always a challenge, but we made it through!

Red Couch Pictures

Anyone who is familiar with China adoption knows about the famous Red Couch Pictures! The White Swan Hotel has a red velvet couch where the families put the children in the adoption group for a picture. As you can tell, getting that many babies/toddlers to sit and look while you try to take a picture is quite a challenge! It was also nap time for some (including Ellie), so she was not happy about it! The pictures of the six girls are the friends Ellie had at the orphanage.

More shopping!

Today was a "free day", which means no appointments. So.... we went shopping! Today we took a trip to a pearl market. We got strands of pearls for Katie, Ellie and Mommy! Katie also got some fancy hot pink pearls! After that, Scott, Katie and Grandma took a walk with some of our group to an outdoor market. There were lots of interesting things to see! Scorpions, turtles, snakes, frogs, these cute puppies (pets, not dinner!) and some beautiful flowers. Katie put on a fashion show with her new Chinese dress. Ellie has one, too, but since she can't stand by herself yet, she couldn't join in! Tomorrow we do the red couch picture. This is a tradition for adoption groups. Ellie will show off her dress then! We shopped today at a store whose proceeds go to helping older children in oprhanages. I could have bought one of everything! Much nicer quality than the local stores, and just slightly more expensive. We got some wonderful souvenirs!

Tomorrow is our consolate appointment, and we have to pack to leave at 5:30 the next morning for Hong Kong, so this may be it until we get home on Thursday! We're going to Hong Kong Disney on Wedsnesday, so if the hotel has internet, I'll post again. If not, it will be a few days!

Thanks for checking in with us!

Guangzhou Day 2

We had a rainy day today, so we didn't do a whole lot. A bit of shopping, of course! Katie loves pulling her coins out of her pocket and saying "This is all I have" to get a good bargain for her purchases! It works! Who could say no to such a sweet face!? We played in the playroom at the hotel for a while. Katie found a friend named Katie who is getting her sister Ellie tomorrow! We ate at a Thai restaurant tonight for a bit of a change. We'll be heading to a pearl store tomorrow. That's where I want my souvenirs to come from!

Guangzhou... day 1

Our first full day in Guangzhou started out with Ellie's "medical exam". They weighed her, she was 16.2 lbs. fully clothed! They checked her hearing by squeeking a Garfield toy and seeing if she looked. She passed! They did say she had a sore throat (from all the screaming?) so we've been giving her Motrin for that. Her diaper rash was so bad the Dr. actually had another Dr. come look at it! That worried me a bit! Otherwise. she's doing great. She's going to Scott and Grandma a bit more, although not as much as we'd like. She loves when Katie plays with her, which is getting more frequent. I'm not sure she knew what to do with her at first! We don't have internet in our room anymore, so we're here at Starbucks! It's the nicest one I've ever seen! We did a bit of shopping... well, alot actually! Scott's mom bought another suitcase for her things! We'll probably add to it, too.

More pictures

A day in the park

Yesterday we went to People's Park. It was much more than we expected! There were a few different sections of exercise equipment, with most of the exercisers being in their 60's-80's! When you retire at 50 in China, it is customary to exercise in the park in the morning. There were women doing fan dances and some Tai Chi, too. There was an amusement park there also. The rides looked very vintage! The colors and decorations were what our parks looked like in the 50's. There was also a man there making candy. Katie is holding hers in the picture. He melted a honey-sugar mixture, then he drizzled it on a marble slab to look like many different designs. Katie's is a bird. He would make a fortune doing this in the US! Ellie is making progress with letting Scott hold her, although she's still very mcuh a mama's girl! She loves Katie, and is starting to take to Grandma, too. Ellie loves hanging her head upside down, but she has a hard time getting back up! We're off to Guangzho later this afternoon for more paperwork and shopping! We bought an extra suitcase yesterday, even though we haven't bought that much yet! Bargaining here is customary, so when we went to the luggage store with Julie, another mom in our group, she did the bargaining fo us. She lived in China for a month on business. Anyway, the lady at the shop wanted 480RBM (Chinese currency) for one bag. This is about $49. When all was said and done, we left the store with 2 suitcases for 220RBM, about $30! Not a bad deal! Let's just hope it makes it home!

Nanchang.. 2 days of info.!

I was too tired last night to add to the blog, so I'll combine yesterday and today.

Nanchang is the capitol of Ellie's province. Scott, Katie, my mother-in-law Joan and some others from our group took a walk around town. Ellie and I stayed at the hotel for a nap! Here are some pictures of the local town, and also a 1,000 year old pagoda we all visited. It's been burnt down and rebuilt 29 times! Lots of stairs to climb! We also took a trip to the Wal-Mart! Very interesting items to be found! Lots of the same basics, but when you get to the grocery area, oh boy! I saw a package of what appeared to be vacuum-packed moth-type things. I almost bought one just to bring home, because you just have to see it to believe it! By the check-out there were chicken paws! Didn't know chickens had paws! More tomorrow!

It's Official!

Today (well, actually yesterday)was "paperwork day" in China. We had our official interview and promised to never abandon or abuse our daughter, and to educate her. Who would go through all of this insanity and not promise to do these things?! Ellie is adjusting well to our family. She is still very much a mama's girl, but I am able to walk away without her crying, and Katie is very good at distracting her! She's still a bit leary of Scott, but she has let him hold her without too much drama! Here are some more pictures of our girls!

Some things we've learned about Ellie: she is a two-fisted eater! She doesn't eat a lot, but she likes to have something in each hand! She likes carbs and watermelon a lot. She is a good sleeper, but doesn't like to be put in her crib until she's already asleep. Something tells me this didn't happen until she met us! She is also quite ticklish on her belly and by her ears. That's how we've gotten the best smiles so far. She doesn't like having her shirt taken on or off, and most of all, she definitely does not like a bath!!!! We thought it would be a good Kodak moment, but all we got was a very frightened, screaming like I've never heard before, child. Katie ran out of the bathroom!! We checked with other parents who have girls from the same orphanage, and they had the same reaction. We'll stick to a sponge bath for a while.

More pictures!

GOTCHA DAY!!!

Katie is so excited to be a big sister!!!

We flew in to Nanchang today around 3:00 pm. We were told the babies would be waiting for us at the hotel! Well, we all rushed to put our things in the room, and no babies! We had to wait what seemed like an eternity, but it was probably 20 minutes or so. Well, when they handed Ellie to us, she began to cry! She cried on and off for about 30 minutes, but when she got her first taste of Cheerios, all was well! She does have a terrible diaper rash, but we'll get that cleared up. She took to Katie right away. She follows her whenever she moves around the room. And if I do say so, she is already somewhat of a mama's girl! She cries when I walk away! What a sweet baby!! She is sleeping soundly now in her crib. Let's hope that goes on for at least another 8 hours! Tomorrow is paper work, and this doesn't seem like a very good part of town to just wander around ourselves! Guess we'll just have to amuse ourselves by staring at Ellie and Katie! More pictures to come!

Day 2...

Our second day in China! We visited Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City. It was a long day with a lot of walking! After that we went on the Hutong tour. Hutong is a part of Beijing where the houses are kept as they were almost 400 years ago! (3rd picture) They have added electricity, but not much else. The houses are set up in a courtyard, with one building of the couryard being the kitchen, one is bedrooms, one is a living room, etc. About 40-50 families share one bathroom outside of the courtyard!

Today is actually the day we get Ellie, because I was too tired last night to write anything! We're heading to the airport in about an hour! More later!

The Great Wall of China

Here we are at the Great Wall!

Well, backing up a bit, our flight was fine, and we're not quite on schedule yet. Katie was up at 3:00AM eating fruit loops!

Back to the Wall... we went up the chair lift, up and down many, many stairs, and back down the lift. We did stop at the Cloisine (sp?) factory on the way, and bought a few souviniers. Sorry about the spelling,... jet-lag you know!

We're with 13 families right now, and two more will join us in a couple of days. Very nice people, all very excited for Sunday (still Saturday for you westerners). We'll be getting Ellie on Sunday, around 4:30 pm. That will be 3:30 am for all of you. Tomorrow we do some more sightseeing, so we'll post more pictures. Hopefully the text will be a bit more exciting, too. Too tired today!